Opal is made from silica and water. It is a non-crystalline material. I often get people from Russia and Africa who want to sell me large quantities of opal, but the black opal jewelry they want to sell me is plain and has very little appeal to me, as we can get poor quality opal any day of the week in Lightning. Ridge region of NSW in Australia. We call it potch and it is what is called common opal. Common opal has no color variations. It may be a dull looking blue or green or gray or white, but it has no play of color.
Expensive fire opal is what everyone is looking for. Expensive opal has a play of colors. Sometimes we call it fire. When you turn a piece of cut and polished opal in your hand, the play of colors will become apparent. As you move it, the colors change, going from bright flashes of one color to different looking flashes of other colors.
It arose mostly in areas that were inland waterways millions of years ago. As these areas weathered, silica seeped into the groundwater and gradually settled into dried spheres that cannot be defined even with an ordinary microscope.
Precious opal will vary from piece to piece. It is rare to find the ability to cut matching pieces from a single piece of opal stone. I cut many large pieces and could not find two small pieces that could be matched into a pair of earrings. That is the beauty of expensive opal, it is not common and no two pieces are likely to be the same.
Precious opal can be found in many parts of the world, but Australia provides about 95 percent of all mined precious opal. It is mined in many parts of Australia, but the two types recognized as the best are black opal and white opal. There are subtypes of these two types such as crystal. Boulder opal is also recognized as an expensive opal.
It is an expensive opal that makes the best opal jewelry. Common opal is still useful for making beads and ornaments and inexpensive jewelry. Expensive opal is often only bought by collectors and stored as investment and pleasure pieces.
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